The Unexpected Surprise
by Kyriana42
Summary: After everything she's encountered at the ARC, Jess Parker was absolutely certain nothing could surprise her anymore. Birthday fic for My Wonky Socks!


**Disclaimer: Don't Own, Don't Sue! ;D**

**After everything she's encountered at the ARC, Jess Parker was absolutely certain nothing could surprise her anymore. Birthday fic for My Wonky Socks!**

It had been several months since the team had been dealt with the almost end of the world and the anomaly convergence.

Everything was just about back to normal.

The anomaly alerts had gone back to having fairly reasonable gaps of time between them. However, everyone at the ARC was naught without something to do.

Matt was at work on out-of-time botany studies; which Emily assisted him with.

Abby still took care of the creatures in the menagerie, while Connor worked on new ways to help deal with the anomalies.

The pair had moved out of Jess's flat a few ago into their new flat.

Jess had been ecstatic at the news of their engagement, but was nonetheless sad to see them move out.

Connor and Abby had also been hard at work planning their wedding in between anomaly alerts and the duties at the ARC.

Everyone seemed to be happy and had someone to call their significant other; even Matt, who still was secretive about some of his life's details, had found someone; Emily.

All Jess had at present was an empty, quiet flat and some overly awkward exchanges with Becker and the occasional chocolate bar that would appear on her desk when she would return from her lunch break.

She sighed as she leaned back in her chair and glanced idly from one screen to the next.

Today was sure to be another uneventful day.

She was half-tempted to take up Lester's offer to alphabetize past reports.

"Another quiet day?" A voice asked from behind her.

Jess sat straight up quickly and turned in her chair to see Becker standing off to the left, glancing up at the screens.

"Looks that way." She smiled.

She noticed the way Becker stood, glancing between her and the screens, a smile playing on his lips.

There were two things Jess was sure of when she saw Becker smile like that.

Either new additions to the armory came in or Connor had done something he was soon to regret.

Jess didn't recall any shipments coming in today.

"What can I do for you, Becker?" She asked, wondering if he'd let her in on why he appeared so happy.

"There's something I wanted to show you later. If you're not busy, of course." He replied, his eyes now focused on Jess.

"No, I have nothing to do." Jess felt the heat starting to rise to her cheeks as it usually did when she spoke with Becker. "I mean, not that I have no absolutely nothing to do."

She quickly cleared her throat and smiled. "I would love to see whatever it is later."

"Brilliant. I'll meet you here in a few hours?"

"Sure." Jess beamed.

* * *

The rest of Jess's day had been spent in anticipation of whatever it was that Becker wanted to show her.

So much so, that she nearly forgot to take the hourly stats twice.

She could hear the blood beating at her ears as the seconds ticked down to five o'clock.

Jess had just finished setting things up for the night crew when Becker came up to the terminal.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Ready." Jess smiled as she grabbed her purse and turned from the hub.

Her brows furrowed when she noticed Becker held what appeared to be a piece of cloth in his hands.

Becker noticed Jess staring at the cloth in his hands and gave a small chuckle.

"It's a bit of a secret." He admitted. "I was going to blindfold you so it would be more of a surprise. If that's alright?"

Jess would have pointed out that nothing could surprise her anymore, but the idea seemed to intrigue her.

"No, it's—it's fine." She assured him.

Jess stood still as Becker stepped behind her and tied the blindfold over her eyes.

"Too tight?" He inquired.

"Not at all."

Jess held her breath for a moment when Becker took hold of her hand and began to lead her towards the surprise.

* * *

As they walked there, Jess felt almost giddy as she ran through her theories of what the surprise might be.

A candlelit dinner, a picnic, a glimpse at his flat at last?

Jess had no doubt in her mind that Becker did indeed care for her; but to what extent, she did not know.

Suddenly, they stopped.

Jess felt Becker's fingers undoing the knots of her blindfold.

"Here it is." Becker said with what sounded like flourish as he took away the blindfold.

Jess's smile disappeared from her face faster than one could say anomaly.

Before the pair of them stood a brand-new, state of the art, tank.

Becker was grinning ear to ear.

"A tank." Jess stated half-heartedly, watching all her theories shatter into pieces.

"Not just any tank." Becker corrected, before going off on a detailed explanation of the make, model, and what not of the tank.

"Lester gave in then, did he?" Jess asked, flatly.

"Yes, but of course, this is for emergency purposes." He cleared his throat, trying to replace his childish glee with his usual professional tone.

"Of course." Jess forced a smile.

Becker seemed to notice her enthusiasm wasn't remotely to par with his.

He cleared his throat and moved to stand next to Jess, taking one of her hands.

"How would you like to join me for dinner?" He asked seriously.

"You—you mean like a date?" Jess asked too busy still reeling from the tank revelation to be embarrassed by her inquiry.

"Did I surprise you?" He asked.

Jess was unsure whether he was referring to the tank or his dinner invitation.

"After what I have seen at the ARC, there's nothing that can surprise me anymore." Jess lied.

"Really?" Becker frowned.

He hesitated before leaning forward and kissing Jess.

Jess immediately froze when Becker's lips touched hers and unexpectedly found herself kissing him back.

Becker broke the kiss and took a step back, smiling. "So, dinner?"

"Dinner sounds brilliant." Jess grinned breathlessly.

* * *

Happy Birthday Danielle!


End file.
